Day after day we have passed this year, and soon we will enter the fall season. Yep, a beautiful season where we will have a lot of fun because of Halloween! Have you prepared for this spooktacular event? If not, then you can prepare it from simple things like decorations.
Based on its appearance, a porch sign is a good decoration to make your front door look attractive. In addition, this type of vertical sign is also the right medium to show how enthusiastic the owner of the house is when welcoming people on Halloween. I’m sure the kids won’t hesitate to shout “Trick or Treat” in front of your house!
It’s not a difficult thing to find interesting and special porch sign ideas for the spooky season. However, do you know how to make it? Don’t worry, this time I will give you some easy steps to make your own Halloween themed porch sign.
Before making a DIY Halloween porch sign, the tools and materials that we need are:
The cutting machine that I chose to use is the Cricut Explore Air 2. I personally like this machine because of its versatile and simple functions. However, of course you can still use a different cutting printer.
A cutting mat is an object that is used as a base for vinyl sheets while preventing the cutting tool from coming into direct contact with the machine and other cutting tools. As a crafter, I really understand if you don’t want your favorite machine and table to be scratched by sharp objects!
The set consists of scissors, spatula, scraper, weeder, and tweezers.These tools are very useful and always needed for various types of vinyl crafts (or other crafting projects). Although at first I felt that I didn’t really need it, in fact these tools really help us in our crafting activities so that we can get a neat and perfect vinyl craft.
Vinyl has a function to form letters and cute decorations that will be attached to the wood board. For that, we need to prepare vinyl sheets in several colors, according to the Halloween front porch sign design that we will apply.
I used a 48″ x 12″ wooden board that has been painted white as a porch sign. You can also use vertical wood boards with other sizes depending on your desire and needs because they come in different sizes.
This one object will really help us to transfer the vinyl to the surface of the wooden board. It may sound a little trivial, but transfer tape is a very important component because we have to be really careful when using it.
I think you will be familiar with this type of paper. No, no, this time we’re not using it to protect the cake pan, really! We need parchment paper to avoid air bubbles that might appear on the surface of the transfer tape.
It might be optional, but you’ll definitely need this sealant spray if you want your cool Halloween sign to last longer for a long time. Who doesn’t want their porch sign to have a perfect finish, right?
The first thing that we need to do is prepare everything, especially the porch sign design template and the cutting printer that you will use. I’m using one of the design templates from the bundle that our designer created at Drizy Studio. You can also get it here.
After unzipping the file, I opened this design template using the Cricut Design Space on my phone and started setting up the cutting machine that I would use to cut the vinyl sheets.
Load the vinyl sheets and your cutting mat on the cutting printer. Set their position properly and make sure that no part of the vinyl is outside the mat. After that you can actually start the cutting process.
If your DIY Halloween porch sign design template consists of several different parts or colors, you can repeat this step several times based on the order of parts or color groups.
What we have to do now is remove the vinyl from the mat, then cut the letter arrangement in sequence into several pieces with scissors first before removing unnecessary vinyl parts. You can use any crafting tool (or we can call it a weeding tool) that can help you in this removal process.
You need more patience and thoroughness to do this, especially in small and fairly detailed parts. Just remember that good results will provide satisfaction for ourselves. Don’t forget to do the same next steps for each vinyl piece!
After successfully getting the vinyl parts we need, it’s time for us to move it to transfer tape. For that, we have to position the sticky part of the transfer tape facing directly on the vinyl, as well as the front of the vinyl piece that directly facing the transfer tape so we can stick them together.
If you have attached the vinyl piece, cut the tape according to its size. Then we directly rub the scraper tool on the backing paper or from the top of the transfer tape so that the vinyl can transfer perfectly to the tape.
Make sure you have removed the backing paper on your vinyl pieces and the tape, then apply the parchment paper on the transfer tape immediately. Leave a little bit of space on the top of the tape so that it is not completely covered by the paper.
This needs to be done so that we can adjust the position of the transfer tape properly before attaching it to the wooden board. Don’t you think it would be complicated if we had to stick the transfer tape directly without adjusting its position properly first?
Begin this step by gluing the tip of the transfer tape to the surface of the wooden board after you feel you have placed the transfer tape in the correct position. Next, peel the parchment paper little by little while sticking the part of the transfer tape that was previously covered slowly.
You need to rub the scraper tool on the transfer tape that has been attached so that the vinyl is transferred properly to the wooden board. It can also work to prevent air bubbles that usually arise when sticking the sticky parts of the tape on a flat surface.
Once it feels good enough to stick, peel off the transfer tape slowly so that the vinyl piece is firmly attached to the wooden board. Repeat this step for the other vinyl pieces until all the pieces are properly attached. Now, your Halloween porch sign is almost ready!
Before taking this final step, wear a mask first to avoid harmful substances contained in the sealant spray. Then take a clear outdoor sealant and spray it on the entire surface of your sign evenly.
This is very important to do, especially if you want your Halloween sign to last a long time. As we know, wooden boards are quite susceptible to temperature and weather conditions.
Your spooky and cool Halloween sign is done! Look, this decoration is ready to be displayed next to your front door. Everyone who visits will know that the owner of the house is ready to greet them with a lot of Halloween energy!
Those are 7 easy steps to make your own porch sign for Halloween. Sure it looks “eerie-sistible” and “gourd-geous”, right?
If you like it, you can check out other Halloween crafting ideas on our website here or join the Drizy Studio Facebook Group.
See you later, dear crafters! I hope you have an eek-tastic Halloween!
